Widespread reports of long waits [on AT&T Mobility’s website], starting shortly after midnight Pacific time.
2 hours of putting in my information and hitting refresh and I STILL don’t have an iPhone 4S. AT&T, you failed again. Goodnight.
Eric (‘gameric’) Gamero, who posted that message on Twitter at about 3:15 a.m. PST Friday, was hardly alone. In the early hours after Apple began taking pre-orders for its latest iPhone, due out next Friday, hundreds of similar complaints flooded the messaging service, “Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We ordered our iPhone 4S units via Apple Store Online earlier today and everything worked perfectly. Anyone try AT&T Mobility’s or any other carriers’ site and encounter problems?
Tried ordering at 2:05 AM CDT and the Apple Store was down. AT&T wasn’t working, either, so I went back to bed.
Tried the Apple Store again at 6:00 AM CDT and my 4S 64GB order went through just fine.
Exactly what did. Worked as expected at 6:00.
The biggest issues I’m having ordering on Apple.com is that it forces the shipping address to be the same as the billing address on ATT. There seems to be no way to change it.
That was a concern of mine, too, since I’d rather get it delivered to me at work, where I know someone will be around to sign for it.
Under Apple’s shipping notes, it does talk about “pre-signing” for it and adding delivery instructions, and it mentions changing the delivery address. You may be able to change it then, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it adds a delay to its arrival.
I think it locks in the delivery address to your AT&T address because the carriers need to determine fees and taxes based on where you live. So, maybe that’s why there’s no option to change it.
Yep, the taxes on my cell phone tripled when I went from CA to NY. Since I have addresses in both locals I quickly changed it back to CA and do billing electronically.
AT&T’s ordering process had the same restriction. The billing address for the credit card and the shipping address had to be the same (I had wanted the phone shipped to my office, but no dice).
I was forced to talk to management about this very issue. She said she will call me back on it. No time frame given. The other option is to change my billing address to my home. I can’t do this for various reasons that I will not get into.
But I point blank asked her, Who makes this phone? Who ships this phone? Both times she reluctantly said, Apple. So there you go. I will repost here once I get the call back from Apple Inc.
I had the same problem, bit if you call Apple they will change the shipping address for you. They said it doesn’t even delay it.
My problem is two fold, so lets skip the fact that they shipped me three iPhones to my current address.
One is everything I do goes through my Post Box. Driver’s License, Taxes, Billing, Everything! If I change the billing address to my home, then I will have to change all my bank info as well. I could go on, but it gets rather horrible.
I asked Apple about changing the shipping address after I order, they said My shipping address and billing address have to be the same to even process the order.
Now again as I told the ladies I talked with. On the day that Steve passed away, I received the Red iPod nano I ordered.
Apple Made the nano and ships it. The also make the iPhone and ship that too. BUT the Tel Co controls who Apple can sell to?
I finally called AT&T for purchase the iPhone 4S(teve). As the AT&T tech told me, this is a new requirement that the billing and shipping be the same. Why he was not sure.
New iPhone 4S Black 64GB is going to ship to me 🙂 Thank you AT&T Support.
Hmmm, thats odd. I just called Apple and they changed the shipping address after I ordered. I ordered a second phone and was even able to go in my self and change the shipping address afterward on Apple’s site.
I ordered two Black 64GB 4S’s after calling 194 times. I was 6 redials away from going back to bed. The site was delayed (haven’t heard why) and I couldn’t get my orders to go through for about an hour. So naturally once my call goes through I am able to place my orders online. I spoke with a nice lady from Pa. While I finished my orders online. I wasn’t about to let her go because I just knew that something would go wrong. We talked as I finished my orders. All went well finally. My phones will arrive in a week. Yea! One of my orders had a different shipping address from the billing address. No problem.
Both of my orders are AT&AT.
AT&T : without a doubt the worst run company in the world. The Apple customer service lady told me that it was AT&T that caused the delay. No doubt. They suck! And did I mention that AT&T has the worst customer service in the world too? Geez would I like to change but Verizon keeps me limited to calling or surfing on my iPhone. Plus I’m grandfathered on my unlimited plan so I’ll stick with AT&T for a while. But I can’t wait to dump em someday!
Didn’t work for me on Apple’s website at all as I was stuck in an endless loop (thanks to AT&T as it was not being able to connect to them to verify eligibility). I finally gave up at about 3:30am CT. However, by 6:00am it was working smoothly and my order went right through.
Same at Sprint.
I ordered via Apple, but it was 45 min after midnight (Pacific time) before I saw the actual pre-order page rather than the “store is down” post-it page, so Apple may have been a bit busy, too.
I ordered from the Apple Store this morning about 9 a.m. Everything was really smooth.
I was worried there would be delays when it pinged AT&T for my current account information, but there were no unusual delays. It was a great process, and I got my confirmation email about an hour later.
Ordered two 64GB iPhones from at&t at about 1 AM PDT, no problems, even retained the “unlimited” at&t plan.
Actually, I had the exact opposite experience. I tried to order from the Apple store once they went live at about 12:40 PST. Got through the process, and was given a ‘reservation’ rather than a completed order. At 1:08 AM PST, I received an e-mail form Apple to complete my order, and when I tried to do so, I got an error at the stage where Apple gets my account info from AT&T (this happened too with my iPhone 4 last year).
So, I decided to try AT&T’s website instead, and it went off without a hitch. Couldn’t have been smoother. The sole issue was the website’s inability to calculate sales tax, but it didn’t impeded the process in the slightest.
I want one also.
I took me about an hour but I successfully placed an order on ATT about 2am MST. Kept trying Apple – but it was a no go.
* After first being somewhat underwhelmed about the 4S now I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Kind of stupid to want re-designed handsets every year. Back in the day – if a manufacturer doubled the processor speed, doubled the ram on a computer you’d be happier than a pig in shit. Well, right now I’m rolling around in it.
I’m with you on that last part. Wasn’t to excited at first but now I can’t wait. I’m getting a white instead of black like I have now. So it’s gonna look new to. So the “shallow” part of me is happy also.
I ordered from At&t’s site @ 7am EST with zero problems… I also was able to keep my unlimited data plan.
ATT effs up as usual. even with a 4 year head start .
ATT = bunch of morons in dallas wearing cheap suits
After spending 30 minutes waiting for both Apple and AT&Ts stores to update with the new phones, I spent another 45 frustrating minutes on Apple’s store site trying multiple times to place my order, but at each step the form would not submit. I would have to do each step 4 or 5 times. Finally after making it through to the confirmation screen, the confirmation erred out. At that point i went to AT&T’s site and breezed through ordering 2 iPhone 4s’.
@ 1:45AM PST, I got jammed up at Apple, so I went to AT&T, where it was smooth. I got my confirmation email, and another this morning; will get another with a tracking number, once it ships. 64GB, finally!
Sorry about the delays! My apologies for causing the net to slow down!!! I had two browser windows open when ordering my iPhone 4s — One window for AT&T Mobility and the other to Apple store online.
I was deciding who to order from because it would be a phone upgrade for me on my existing AT&T account. The AT&T site was cluttered with multiple add-on monthly fee options. The Apple site was simple. I ordered from Apple at 3 am aloha time.
I also want to ship the phone to work. If you preorder online, both AT&T and Apple lock the delivery address to the billing address. If you pre-order by talking to a real person, either by phone or in person, you can prove your identity and change the shipping address.
In my case, I will call Apple later in the day and change my delivery address. Problem will be solved with a follow up phone call. Not bad for living on a remote island in the middle of the pacific!
I had the opposite on the Apple site. I placed 2 separate orders. Both would only let me ship to the billing address. The Apple customer service lady said to call back when the billing dept. opened and change one order so the billing and shipping were different (the way I wanted it). I did this afternoon. Voilla! All is good now.
Oh. Looks like we both had the same problem. Not different. Anyway, I was able to fix mine rather easily. Didn’t have to dial but once as opposed to 196 during the middle of the night!! Almost gave up.
Follow up: I got my order confirmation from Apple via email (it took seven hours). I logged into my account at the Apple Store, then I easily edited the shipping address and changed it from my home billing address (the only choice when you place an online order) to my work address. No phone call necessary. Very easy process! That’s why I order from Apple. Yes, I’ll have to go into the AT&T store and have them transfer my contacts by reading my old SIMM card (non iPhone upgrade). Whew. Good timing — the display on my old phone broke a few days ago. Ever try to use a cellphone without a display? No display, just like an old AT&T Princess phone, eh?.
But I thought the 4S was suppose to be a disappointment??
I’m not exactly sure who was suppose to be disappointed.
I had issues ordering through the Apple website but it was an AT & T issue, once it got to the account verification process it gave me an error, after about an hour and a half I was able to order it.
Non issue.
Bought my 32GB i4S in less than a minute on my iPhone Apple Store app.
Delivered by 14th!
Booyah!
Apple UK didn’t start up at midnight and I gave up at 2:30 am. Woke up late and it took from 09:10 to 10:00 to finally get confirmation as their site was just crashing continuously. The normally quick confirmation order that arrives the same as the web page confirmation took another 2 1/2 hours to come in.
It says October 14th but we will see.
I ordered my phone from a sales rep in an at&t store. Later I got an email stating that there were happy I ordered and to exect my phone to ship within 14-21 days. I’m going to be WAY upset if I dont have my phone on opening day!
Where are all people who said that this was a lame upgrade and would not sell well? Again, the people with the most rage will prove to be the most wrong!
Just ordered my phone through the App store at 11:30 PT. No problems, no delays, even with the AT&T confirmation.
The best part is the phone will be nearly free after trading in my current phone, and and older 3GS thats been collecting dust for the last year and a half! Can’t wait.
You want to grab this phone and keep it around for a long time. You also might want to keep the receipt.
The first run of these might be worth a lot someday, but more importantly, you want to keep it as a personal historical piece to show it to your grandchildren.
?
Too bad the iPhone 4S was such a boring disappointment. Clearly no one wants this device and will wait for the iPhone 5.
Wait, what?
——RM
Laughing loud and long at pathetic pundit pronouncements.
There comes a point that every time you come to my parties, eat my cake then dis your host that no matter how big you are in the community your presence is persona non-grata.
Most of those pathetic so-called pundits weren’t at or even invited and had to rely on those in attendance to get their blogs on the air:
Considering that their only source was what they got off these live feeds and having been shunned from the event in the first place, it would appear that many acted like little kids not being invited to a birthday party.
This seems evident considering that those in attendance, although somewhat muted, were impressed, particularly with Siri and certainly not disappointed as the want-a-be party crashers described.